Temple dogs can detect unnatural presences and supernatural influences, with enough detail to know heather it’s time to attack or just growl.

Sacred Guardian

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A temple dog may gain a boost to its attack or defense roll by inflicting a mental stress hit upon itself, gaining a +1 for each point of stress in the hit. The bonus cannot be greater than the maximum length of the temple dog’s mental stress track. Alternatively, on a single attack the temple dog may take a 2-stress hit to temporarily satisfy the “Catch” on the toughness abilities of a spiritual creature.

Bio:

That bitch of a mother abandoned me when I was just 3 months old. My brother Rafieal and I were given to the Great Dragon Jarosax as payment for some debt my mother owed. I didn’t understand why I had to leave my other brothers and sisters, but I wasn’t really given that choice. For some reason Jarosax thought that my brother and I would make good guard dogs for one of his treasure hordes in Western Russia. It wasn’t uncommon over the next few months for Jarosax to amuse himself by seeing if Rafi and I could take down the local predetors. It started out with a wild boar between the two of us, but by the time I was one, I was able to take out two fully grown bears by myself.

Aspect: Twice My Size? No Problem.

Phase 2: Rising Conflict

Soon after, Jarosax started to take my brother and I, alternately, on his “aquisition” expeditions. In reality, he would just find what he wanted and then eat the people trying to sell it to him. The last one I went on was at least somewhere a bit warmer than Russia, Columbus, Ohio, USA. Jarosax had been training me to sniff out the riches to make sure they were authentic (why he couldn’t do it himself, I don’t know), so once the sellers presented the merchandise, I ran over to check it out. The theives were a bit ansy, so they made sure to leave a healthy distance between themselves and Jarosax. I scouted out the “gold” and realized it wasn’t as authentic as it appeared to be. I let off a low growl just about the time the cops came busting though the doors. Jarosax, not wanting to get himself involved with the mortal authorities quickly tore a hole in to the Nevernever and vanished, leaving me to fend for myself. Fortunately, the cops ignored me, being a dog and all, and proceeded to stand there with an look of utter disbelief on their faces. I left the warehouse as soon as I could and started to try and find myself to sleep and food to live. After a couple of months, I was finding food behind resturants and sleeping every night comfortably in one of the local parks. It wasn’t until a little later that I started to realize all the…danger that was about.

Aspect: Big Dog, Bigger City

Phase 3: First Story

Title:A Dog’s Gotta Bark

Guest Starring:

After a couple months of just ignoring the strange feelings I was getting, I decided one night to just track them down. My nose, and more importantly my gut, brought me to a strange fenced in tunnel. Luckily it was only about 7 foot high, so I easily jumped over it with a running start. Before me the dark hole in the wall stank of 6 day old margaritias and two month old puke. Still, the feeling of…wrongness pulled me in. I walked for what seemed to be about a half hour, drudging through trash and vomit the whole time, until I make my way to a dimly lit room. It’s about fifty feet wide and around the size of a football field in length. Tightly packed are old World War II style generators, none of them are running. From the middle of the room I hear a low murmur of chanting, so I quietly stalk towards the sound, being sure to not be seen. As I approach the middle of the room I see, crouched behind a generator staring intently at the glowing center of the room…

Aspect: I Know What Goes Bump In The Night

Phase 4: First Guest Appearance

Title:A Girl and Her Bug

Guest Star of: Jennifer Reese

One early evening, not too long after my run in with the Cultists in the tunnels, I was padding along close to the Topiary Gardens, my head close to the ground, sniffing after a squirrel when I heard a shrill scream. The cry was a ways off, but I broke in to a dead spring, trying to get there as fast as I could. The closer I get, the more of that spiritual seemed to build. My vision became clearer, my hearing became sharper, and I was more aware of the world rushing by me. All in all I probably covered about three football fields in under a minute.

I round a giant hedge that seemed to be a man riding on a Tyrannosaurs Rex to be greeted by an eight foot tall Mantis. The mantis, however, was supported by six legs and two huge fangs in addition to it’s scythe like arms that must have had at least a twelve foot reach on them. It was a fucking spider mantis.
|The energy emanating from the bug was foul. It felt as if my senses were rolling around in a black tar sludge then alternately swimming in quicksand. What was this thing?
|In front of the Spideymant, stood a short, slender woman with dark hair falling to midway down her back. She had a quiet confidence about her, not wavering as the Spideymant’s fangs let a drip of fresh blood drop to the ground, and held out her right hand; a bracelet on her wrist began to glow a subtle gold glow. I could feel the surge of power emanating from it, a strong and steady power. Spideymant let off a chilling scream, raising the enormous arms in front of it’s face.

Behind Spidymant, the air seemed to haze over like an early morning fog. Then Spidymant simply scuttled backwards and disappeared in to the fog. The spiritual energy which previously just been sitting on my senses snapped in to place and the rush of power that exuded from the fog was almost overwhelming.

The young woman yelled out, louder than I thought she should have been able to, “You’re not getting away this time!” and rushed sprinting in to the fog, disappearing herself.

It took me all of two seconds to get myself together before I decided that I had to follow. Three bounds later I jump in to the haze…

..and landed on a giant leaf. My fur was instantly soaked by the humid air, causing my body to unconsciously shake to remove the excess water from my body. The sun was high in the sky; it took my eyes a moment to adjust from the dusk that was just in the Garden.

I finally get my wits about me to actually look around and am greeted by a scene from something that would come from an animated Disney movie. The leaf I, and consequently the woman and Spidymant, was standing on was the size of a basketball court. Luckily I came out in the middle, right where the stalk when though the center of the leaf, and not on one of the thinner edges.

The woman screamed out, fury in her voice, a word I couldn’t recognize and the air in front of her outstretched hand seemed to shimmer. Spidymant let out another weird shriek and staggered to the side. It turned and looked directly at the woman, a look of alien surprise on its face that she had followed.

I decided it was time to actually help; I broke in to a full sprint. As I passed the woman, I turned my head back quickly, letting my tongue drop out of my mouth to give her a quick grin. She seemed a little shocked at seeing me and her brow scrunced together, trying to put together what was going on. I turn my head back towards my prey. This thing was going to go down. I took a leap about ten feet from Spidymant, turned my head slightly so that my front shoulder could hit it squarely in the upraised abdomen.

Almost faster than I could see, the creature’s right claw began to swing down to intercept my flight. I quickly twist my body midair, throwing my hind end up towards my head, and open my jaws. As the sweeping arm slams down, I clamp my teeth on to the bug’s chitin covered forearm. His shell cracked, not my teeth. The force of the swing almost threw me off, but my jaw had locked and it wasn’t going to let go. I was in this until one of us was dead.